19TH CENTURY NOVEL

The main features of 19th century novel

If there is a word to describe this age it will be the concept of Realism. The Victorian novel appealed to readers because of this. Novels were described by the following: impulse to describe the everyday world the reader could

recognize introduction of characters who were blends of virtue and vice attempts to display the natural growth of personality expressions of emotion: love, humor, suspense, melodrama,

pathos (deathbed scenes) moral earnestness and wholesomeness, including crusades

against social evils and self-censorship to acknowledge the standard morality of the times.

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism, biting irony and social commentary have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.

Main features and Major works

1. Draw calm pictures of society life2. Understood the importance of the family in human

affairs, brought the novel of family life to its highest point of perfection

3. Paid little attention to the violence of nations The major works are Pride and Prejudice and

Emma.

Charles Dickens (1812- 1870)

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period.

The Main Features of Dickens

Fertility of character creation Great ability in description and narration Social criticism of 19th century England Depiction of childhood and youth Comic creations Many of his scenes are terribly unpleasant, but he

usually keeps the worst descriptions out of his books. Wanted to raise kindness and goodness in men’s

hearts, and he used tears and laughter to reach his aim.

Dickens’ Major Novels

A Tale of Two Cities (1849): It is a story of the French Revolution and events in London. It was Written partly with the purpose of improving social conditions

Oliver Twist (1837-8): It is about a poor boy’s cruel treatment and miserable adventures. The novel is full of vivid descriptions of hunger, stealing, murder and hanging.

David Copperfield (1849-50) – it is a story based on Dickens’s own life, the most popular of his novels.

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

Thackeray's chief subject is the contrast between human pretensions and human weakness. He excelled at portraying his own upper middle class social stratum. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.

The Major Features of Thackeray

Not a romantic, wrote as an educated man. Produced his characters for the purpose of

expressing violent feelings Described strange qualities in human beings Showed life’s cruelties and people’s weakness Only conscious of the importance of noble rank and

good family.

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819-88)

Eliot is considered to be the first modern novelist, a creator of psychological fiction. She is known for her penetrating character analyses and convincingly realistic scenes.

In Eliot's novels plot did not need to depend upon external complications; it could rise from a character's internal groping toward knowledge and choice.

Her major work is Adam Bede

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

The characteristic Victorian novelist such as Dickens or Thackeray was concerned with the behavior and problems of people in a given social milieu which he described in detail.

Thomas Hardy preferred to go directly for the elemental in human behavior with a minimum of contemporary social detail. He felt that man was an alien in an impersonal universe and at the mercy of sheer chance.

Major Features of Hardy

Nature plays an important part in his novels The past has built up a mass of conditions which

remain to influence people’s lives Blind chance has a very important effect The best way of life: accept the blows of fate In his novels, human beings struggle against fate or

chance The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891)